The present invention relates to the cooling of a building having an attic and especially a process and apparatus for increasing the flow of air through an attic for cooling the attic and removing additional moisture from the attic.
In the past, it has been common to provide a building with an attic under the roof of the building and to provide air flow to remove heated air from the attic. Small openings in the soffit under the eaves of the roof allows air into the attic. The heat buildup in the attic is partially removed by a roof vent placed on the roof to vent the heated air from the roof. Thus, air entering the soffit vents under the eaves brings air into the attic and is vented out the roof vent by the rising heat within the attic. This flow of air also reduces moisture buildup and condensation within the attic. Cooling of the attic and of the house can be improved by the use of a thermostat controlled electric fan placed through the roof or through a gable which is activated only when the temperature reaches a predetermined level within the attic.
Attic ventilation can be very important in a home since air trapped in an unvented attic can get as hot as 150 degrees, which heat can seep into the living quarters below to warm the house and make the air conditioner work harder and require additional electric power. It has been shown in the past that the power required by an air conditioned home can be reduced by as much as 30% by properly venting and cooling the air within the attic.
One prior U.S. Patent to Crawly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,870,832, is for a positive ventilation cooling augmenter which uses a large open ended air collector attachment above an external heat exchanger for a residential air conditioner to duct the exhaust heat from the heat exchanger air flow into the attic of the building through a substantially vertically ascending flow tube. The heated air from the exhaust fan is forced directly into the attic in order to cool the household attic by displacing air trapped within the attic and to reduce the heat load in the air conditioned spaces of the house by reducing the heat radiated from the attic spaces downward through the ceiling of the house.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,409 to Satama, an air conditioning apparatus and system directs air conditioning condense exhaust through the exterior wall air space and into the attic to reduce the heat load of the air conditioning system.
The present invention is directed towards using the exhaust air from the exhaust fan of an air conditioning condenser unit to provide an improved air flow through the attic in order to help cool the building and reduce the air conditioning load on the building. The exhaust fan of the standard air conditioning unit is typically directed towards the building soffit under the eave. The use of a diverter member to direct the exhaust air through open air space allows the air to be partially cooled when passing through open space. The air is then captured by a hood mounted on the soffit which surrounds an enlarged opening through the soffit and into the attic. This simplified system has been shown to be an effective improvement in reducing the energy load on the building and assists in cooling the building.